Various methods and facilities for assembling components of a vehicle body are known. By using a geometry box and clamping frame for the components to be assembled, dimensionally accurate production of the vehicle bodies is achieved.
In a known method and a known facility (EP 0 760 770 B1), the geometry box is itself composed of the clamping frames, which are guided to the processing station using transport devices and are equipped with body parts. This means that the clamping frames are designed as very rigid and thus also very heavy. A correspondingly heavy transport device is required for feeding the clamping frames.
In another method and another facility (EP 0 968 073 B1), from which the present invention proceeds, a stationary geometry box is provided, in which a component of the vehicle body, in particular the floor group, assumes an exactly defined geometrical position to the geometry box on a lower construction. To guide the remaining components thereto, the geometry box is situated inside a complex component robot having various transport devices for the remaining components. A clamping frame is provided for each component to be added on. Therefore, clamping frames having a length of 4 to 6 meters are required. Because such clamping frames must be designed as sufficiently rigid for the clamping of the components on the geometry box in the correct position and attitude, they may have a weight of 2000 kg in practice. Such weights may no longer be manipulated using commercially available heavy load robots.